esteemed as malcolm to the 74th

national book awards ceremony. tonight's host is levar burton, renowned actor, producer and literacy advocate whose decades long body work includes roots star trek the next generation and reading rainbow. he is the honored recipient seven acp awards, ap buddy award, a grammy award, 15 emmy awards. please. levar burton.

my people. oh, thank you. thank you so for that warm welcome and welcome everyone to the 74th national book awards. this. i. i had the tremendous honor of serving as master of ceremonies for the 70th national book awards in 2019. and it genuinely means the world me to join you all again on stage to celebrate the important house of literature to our shared culture. before we get going there any moms for liberty in the house? moms for liberty? no. good.

then hands will not need to be tonight. we the national book award ceremony, the biggest night for books and i've been saying for the last three weeks that this on the planet the room to be in on this night. there are hundreds of you beautiful people here in the room and thousands more tuning online worldwide. out to my sister, leticia, who actually taught me how to thank you. but this she's watching the live feed. it is a very special thing to be in community with who believe like i do in the power of

reading it was four years ago on this stage that i spoke a bit about my mother, our imogene christian, an teacher. it was my who taught me at a very young age, if you can read in at least one language, you, by her definition free and the idea. and then idea of freedom feels especially fraught in this global political moment. there are wars and rumors of wars and the machinery of war at work on the home front, we are fighting for control of truth and how we interpret truth in this country. books are being banned, words

are being silenced, and writers and others who champion books are under attack. and there is a reason, i believe, why books are under attack. it's because they are so powerful. stories are the tool that enable us to better understand ourselves and. yes, our history to live over the course of a few pages in the experiences of and to create a world we can all be free free. thank you to the 2023 national book award finalists. help us believe in a brighter future and yes yes. and who will their words so

masterful with so much compassion, insight. so tonight we are celebrate books set from literally around corner to around the globe from the past through the present and into the future. you see what i did there. the diversity. these works illuminate our shared humanity, our world as it is. and as it could be. and now it is my honor to welcome to the stage this evening's special guest is oprah winfrey. and.

oh, great. thank you. oh, my word. tonight. what a great, great, great, great joy for to be here to share the same space with all of you, my heroes and because books rescued me, books have delivered me. books have exalted me and helped discover more of myself. i'm having flashback memories right now of getting my first library card at, the nashville hadley park library. and being in all that, i got to

take five books home and being so overwhelmed by the power of authors and their words. i couldn't understand then how you all did that and now for me to be able to stand in the same room with all of you who do that is such privilege and. great joy for me. thank you. thank you. ruth dickey and the whole team at the national foundation. thank you, levar burton, who loves as much as i. and again, to the finalists, to the long list to every single writer who has graced us this year with your words and, with your wisdom, to all of you who faithfully leave at putting pen

to fingers, to creating inspo wired connections to our imaginations. thank you for all the momentous relationships that you have built with us through. the magic, the majesty and the simplicity of your words. so the book club. oprah's book club. i know there are a lot of book clubs now, but we're the ogs. okay. hello. back in 19 and 96, the book club started on the oprah show because. my producer, alice at the time, and i had our own private book exchanges going for years, and she suggested one day she said, since you love books, authors so much, why don't you share your

excitement with our viewers? and i said, alice cannot do a show with authors who write fiction because the audience is not going to know what we're talking about. and she said they will if you give them time to read the book and seven years and 103 book club picks later later. i am grateful. the sense of safety, sense of purpose and growth that this community has given me every day. i get invigorated by opening a book, often by reading that first sentence. first, i got myself, says damian fields, page one of demon copperhead. thank you, barbara kingsolver. you know, until that moment, i never thought of it quite that before that we get to our own entrance into the world. or how about this on a hot night

in apartment c for blanding watkins exits her body. she's only 18 years old, but she's spent most of her life wishing for this to happen. that was tess country for the rabbit hutch. i want to especially think the readers here and at home the people who poured through all hundred and 35 pages of an epic novel in india. with me, hello, abraham verghese and the covenant of water. or wept over memoir or opened their minds. the ideas of a nonfiction book about, our culture and our world, not to mention all those young people out there who found their voices in books written for them or by them. hello, amanda gorman. i'm talking about the readers who picked up the call purple 40 years ago and.

found the kind of truth that found in those pages. dear god, i am 14 years old. i have always been a good girl. maybe can give me a sign letting know what is happening to me truth to translate it. into a movie, into a broadway musical. and now the movie version of that musical opening this christmas at a theater near you. that is the power of a story told. thank you, alice. it's been 24 years since my last time on the stage in front of this podium. and since then, as levar stated, between 2021, in 2022, the american library association saw a 70% increase in requests to ban books from public schools and libraries. and it's looking like this year is going to be even worse. early data shows that numbers already risen by 20%, so over 75% of those books banned were

specifically written for younger. 41% had lgbtq themes or characters, and 40% had a main or secondary character color. so who exactly is to keep these books off the shelves? it's not the majority of parents. this september, 67% of parents surveyed by the every library agreed that banning books is a waste of time. meanwhile, there's been dozens of dozens, dozens of bomb threats against libraries. tracey hall, the former director, the american library association. hello, tracey. says that at least ten of last year's threats were verified and almost every case had been linked to somebody who was disgruntled about the right to read. amanda jones, a louisiana school in july 2022, went to public library board to speak out against an attempt to ban books.

and that day, she showed up that meeting as just a concerned citizen. she didn't say where she worked. she just spoke about the importance of having books. immediately had a worker address leaked, people began posting nonstop making accusations about her abuse, using the young readers at her library. children she dedicated 23 years of her life to educating. she started getting death threats all for standing up for our right to read. two years later, she's still nervous to go out in her community. she has a groceries delivered, she says, but she's not. stop fighting book bans or stopped advocating for access to diverse stories. the numbers back her up this year. the nonprofit first book found that just months after diverse books were added to libraries, classroom time increased by 4 hours per week.

i was 15. i was 15 years old when i read my diverse book. maya, i know why the caged bird sings and the whole world fell away from me. it was the first book at 15 i ever read with a black protagonist. that book gave a voice to my silences and my secrets. it words to my pain and confusion of being raped nine years old until caged bird. i didn't know that there a language. there were words for what had happened to me. or that any other human being on earth had experi. that's the power of books. and. and yet i know why the caged sing has been amongst the top 100 most banned or challenged books for each of the last three

decades. it was the third most banned book from 1990 to 1999. and then and toe to 22 229 and then the 88th from 2010 to 2019. because there's so many other books ahead of it being banned. it's currently banned in libraries in pennsylvania. and despite that tonight at my table, i have the honor of sitting beside two time two time national book award winner and author my most recent book club selection. let us descend. jesmyn ward. in 2022. jasmine's first novel, salvage the bones, was challenged in guilford, north carolina, and to the efforts of teachers and and students and citizens, just ordinary folks came together,

stood the book, remained in the high school curriculum because the community said it should and would make no mistake to ban books is the stuff out the flame of truth of what it means to be alive. what it means to be aware what it means to be engaged. the world to ban books is to cut us off one another, to shroud us in a solitary darkness, a soulless echo chamber to. ban books is to strangle life. what sustains us and makes us better people. connection and compassion and empathy, understanding and my hope is that kids will come to reading for the same reason. all of us in this room have come to reading to see themselves in the character they meet to feel, recognize, to feel understood. and when feels understood, they

can understand it. they can pick up a book about people who. they have nothing in common with and cry for them and root for them and celebrate with them. that's how reading spills into our everyday lives. it opens us to the world, the whole world, not our cozy corner of it. so let us vow to keep our books right where they belong, in reach of everyone to choose for themselves. what read because that, dear friends, is called freedom. and as you know i'm a great believer in toni morrison, who once said that the function of freedom is to free some body else. so god bless you all here tonight for continuing to liberate us.

one page at a time. thank you so much much. oprah winfrey. oprah winfrey. oprah. i'm now going to say one or two of the things that i was going to say before you jumped up and took the stage. there is no one, no soul on this planet who has done more to advance the cause of the written word than you you. i shared with oprah earlier this evening. we were taking a picture

backstage and i whispered to her, you know, for two people who are descendants of the enslaved to become symbol for literacy, literature and, the written word. oprah, you are the patron saint of books and literature. your presence here tonight has been a blessing, a benediction for, us all. thank you. thank you. thank you. now i'm going to compose myself

and we will with this evening's celebrations with recognize the national book foundation's two incredible achievement lifetime achievement honorees and rita dove rita dove. so first is the 2023 literary an award for outstanding service to the american literary community, which is given to recognize the honorees dedication to expand in the audience for books and for reading. past recipients include. lawrence ferlinghetti, dr. maya angelou and. most recently. tracy dee hall, former executive director of the american library association. tonight's recipient is a life long bookseller who has paved a path forward for readers and

globally. and here to present the award to paul yamazaki is 2011 literary and recipient himself mitchell kaplan native of miami beach, florida. mitchell is owner of the storied books and books the village, the venerated establishment in miami, and the co-founder of the miami book fair y'all. it gives me great, good pleasure to welcome to stage mr. mitchell kaplan. wow. wow. i want to thank oprah and lavar for those remarkable opening comments and. i'm also here to thank who's a friend who's a friend to all of us in this and is doing all of the kind work that we heard. lavar oprah talk about.

and i'm going to start with a little story because we're among storytellers. so i was at nine years old once. believe it or not, it was 1974. i was english major then at that point at the university of colorado. and they ended up in boulder from miami beach after reading a book, a book by jack kerouac the dharma bums. i had never before seen mountains or snow, but somehow i figured, as only an 18 year old, can figure that my destiny was to hang out on a mountaintop. watch for fires, and write poetry. that this was colorado instead oregon. and then, unlike chaffee rider. i was no poet and wouldn't recognize fire in the wilderness unless that wilderness include

it lots of palm trees didn't matter. i was heading west. i was on the road and as you probably see where this story is going at my first break, thanksgiving weekend, i headed further. i drove across the rockies straight for san francisco, go straight for city lights bookstore. once there, i in awe. so many books in such unusual conversations with each other. every section unlike i'd ever seen before. browsers were everywhere broadsides on the walls and all those city lights titles. ginsberg, even there browsing the poetry. that night, he and gregory corso would be having a reading together. just down the street i found my heaven. and i only wished i could stay forever. i did strike up a conversation

with a bookseller that day. what we talked about i don't really remember in great detail. i remember, though, that he was very gracious, very patient, and that he regaled me with the history of the store and i might like that new city lights anthology that had just been published. the one with that great bronner illustrator friend on the cover. the one i still have. although there's no way for to be sure. and this is a story i want to believe. that bookseller on that day in city lights was paul yamazaki paul yamazaki. it probably wasn't. but it makes perfect sense if it were, because that and that bookseller showed me the possibility of what my could be and. that's the kind of effect that paul has. so let's just say it was paul

and let me just say thank you, paul and, tonight. we all think paul we gather to honor the remarkable work he has done for all of us, for over five decades, writers readers, publishers and booksellers, his commitment, the very deep waters of our literary life has made a difference. a profound difference that paul came to bookselling as a way to get an early release from a prison rendered because of his activism, his legendary and it's so right his well-developed sense of justice and inclusion brought a a fresh vibrancy to city lights when. he took over as head buyer. and in a broader sense his championing and for new and diverse voices and for small and

independent presses set an early example for booksellers everywhere. he demonstrated that his and presses would find their readers when given a chance. he continues to be a catalyst for change, a transformative, a transformational change that we witnessed today. and each and every laid tuesday i recently saw this post i think it was by and tilburg and i thought of paul. she writes. this is what is great about bookselling. it's an embrace of the plural whether within the store or broadly across the land and broadly across the land. paul's embrace of other booksellers is profound. his warmth, his humility the way he listens. that's of his the joy wears so well. he's a friend and a to young and

old. one's just starting out or more established. and i've gathered a few of those voices for you. just a few. if i went further, there would be hundreds. melinda powers of bookshop santa cruz writes one of the qualities i love and admire most in paul is his curiosity and, the way it guides him with such kindness and humility. he's about the craft of bookselling, its myriad approaches. he's interested in his colleagues perspectives regardless, of their experience. and he seeks out understanding through relationship. building bridges between writers, publishers and booksellers is creating more space for everyone. underneath it all. is his love for the books. his keen understanding of the numbers. and his high standard excellence. all of which he so generously shares elevating us all.

and this is from jeff deutsch of seminary co-op, who's a marvelous bookseller. but to me, he's more important as the publisher of a book that paul is about to publish. it's by paul and it's called reading the room. and i've read an early copy of it, and i recommended this entire room. it's really remarkable paul. jeff says paul yamazaki has raised up generations of booksellers. he teaches by example, including the lesson that the and commitment need not compromise kindness and generosity. in peaceable kingdom engagement listening curiosity are the marks, greatness and enthusiasm. the work. we are lucky to live in the time of. yamazaki well said, jeff. yes, we all. miwa.

master host of that wonderful podcast poured over writes paul was the beacon i didn't know i needed when. i met him 30 plus years ago. a cool cat, a dude who read everything in asian bookseller. paul held door open for me and i do the same because. he taught me how i stay because paul stayed. yes. and if you've ever come to any literary events like these or, you know, old b.a. or the american bookseller convention, you know that there's paul and rick. right. so this is from rick simon's and of elliott that another hand for rick to work. of paul so much to say but this

that is abiding interest in and attention to those have come before our time to those who are coming will come after and to the world. this all happens in bespeaks an old soul evident in him when he was young and young soul evident. now that he is an elder paul yamazaki carries the immensity and of being human with purpose, passion and a radiant spirit that is rare among. he indeed the square books. the wonderful square box. oxford, mississippi. yes rick from richard worth, the founder of square books, says paul yamazaki, one of the nicest people i known is the wise and gifted bookseller who for a half

century has given his head and heart and joy to one of america's iconic bookstores and its community. what a pleasure and great good fortune it is to have known as a model, mentor and and drinking buddy. i mean. yeah, drinking buddy. thanks. i almost forgot that, because, you know, paul with a martini in hand is an indication that all is right in the world. right? anyone who's gone drinking, paul knows that. and since i have the distinct pleasure of bestowing upon paul yamazaki the 2023 literary award, i ask that all of us raise glass in recognition of paul's outstanding service to the american literary. paul yamazaki the literary.

this is. the. i'm really, really stoned and humbled to be here. there so many people in this room who've meant so much to me, who've made me look a lot

smarter than i actually am. but but it is. it's to be the recipient of the literary award is such a tremendous honor of it's not something that you seek out. it's not something that you aspire to. but it is what heard so much tonight. our passion and curiosity for the written word for the for what the authors do for us know just it's right now is we live in such troubled times and such turbulent times. it the writers who really kind of bring forward how we're able to kind of determine the course through. our lives but it is what. the whole world is like kind of shaped by the writers do at

least from my perspective as a bookseller it is there is so much that that we do not or i do not get without reading the books without having to conversations. and so as i stand here as the current recipient of the literary award. i have been. preceded by three amazing booksellers as publishers who've directly affected me. but first, i would like to thank david and the board of directors of the national book foundation and ruth dickey. and the staff who've assembled us here, but just for this evening, but for the work that they do constantly around the just like to bring.

writers readers closer together. that's what we all do together. we are the planks in the bridge towards building that closer connection. but it is the staff and board of. the national book foundation that actually put those planks in place and so we thank you very very much for for all of that. so we are kind of here not hear me speak but to celebrate the writers and this troubled time it is the writers really give us a guidepost to how we move forward with compassion and humanity and to be able to make kind of not preconceived notions of what we should be doing, how the various kind of fonts that we can use to make our own determinations. so i've been really privileged

to have these amazing comments that mitchell assembled. and so what? so what's happened? so lawrence ferlinghetti ferlinghetti, mitchell kaplan orrin teicher, are all people who directly affected my career as a bookseller. and so i'll spend a little time exactly how they did. so with mitchell and orrin, they were really able to create a foundation and an ecology. if will, of the book world of shape how we move, how we shape a sustainability. so for all the booksellers in the room, we know how difficult it just in the day to day to create a sustainability not for our stores, not only for our readers, but our booksellers. and so it is mitchell and oren,

who really created a template for us that we still follow. and it is true that conversations and the systems that they put forward that we can move forward like this. i wouldn't be here today without them, but most importantly, lawrence ferlinghetti, who is the 2005 recipient of the literary award, the first one that was was given by the national book foundation. had the wisdom to hire me while i was serving two concurrent sentences in san francisco county jail. and it is what mitchell has done in miami, what launched did with me is to show that if you shut doors, if you open the doors there is so much that is possible. there is so much that we can the authors here today and have been

nominated along short list the ones that we booksellers and liberians are able to kind of have the privilege of presenting to our readers offer so many different bridges and pathways to think how we resolve our various issues in the world today. oh, so as we move forward, we have to kind of each one of us question how we do our books. it's it's for editors. booksellers. there's also finite space. there's the economics of what we do. there's the space of what we do. and it is kind of the privilege of the bookseller that we're able to for one of our individual communities, one for individual readers, how we're able to like, bring those readers forward and i think one of the things that's so key,

what mitchell has done in miami is to show that if you open the doors, if you don't shut the doors, you will be able people will come in, they will walk with you. and i think. one of the major things for me as a bookseller, the years is that trust writer, trust the reader. and you really don't have think about much else because if you have trust, if you have that conversation, people walk with you and it is kind of like after like five decades as a bookseller, i can get godly state that trust is always there. and for all of us together, we can like kind of continue to build those reading audiences. i think right now it's so important to that. and the that we're facing right now and we can see this with all the nominees and all the

categories today that one of them gives an individual path for us to think about to follow, to be able to kind of like cogitate upon and move forward. so i'd like to think, you know, it's. all my planned remarks. i've just kind of thrown out the window kind of like. what? mr. burton what. ms. winfrey what mitchell have all have kind of so beautifully encapsulated our purpose is here today. and so i would like to thank all of you so much for bestowing this me to have these conversations and to move forward. and so we know that there's a lot a lot of work we all have to do about race and class about how the conflicts in the world are going. but it is the author's today and moving forward that will help us

set those guideposts to have these conversations since. but thank mitchell. thank you. rick simonsen. thank you for all the booksellers in this room. thank you for like my colleagues at city lights who've like made this all possible for me and. most of all, my wife sarah chin, who kind of has guided me through this whole process. and so thank you very much. who. so we'll continue tonight. celebrations, the 2023 medal for distinguished to american letters each year the medal is given to a writer who has over the course of their career, enriched our shared literary

cultural heritage. previous recipients, include toni morrison, isabella landay and most recently graphic novelist and comics artist art spiegelman. yeah. yay! art. tonight's honoree has written in just about every genre. mentored hundreds if thousands of emerging poets, writers and served as the first black poet laureate of these united states. here to present the medal rita dove is mr.. jericho is the author of please. which one in american book award the new testament, which won an and his field wolfe book award the tradition which was national

book award finalist and won the 2020 pulitzer prize for poetry. ladies and gentlemen, give it up for. thank you so much for introduction. i hope my saw that levar burton said name. thank you to the national book foundation for me here. it's so nice to be in a room where everyone knows i'm a poet and nobody is stressed out about it. i know for a fact that in this room. no one has ever tried to ban a book by. i don't know that in every room, but give yourselves a hand.

give yourselves a hand. so so i feel at home here. i've traveled some distance. i have come all the way from georgia. so you can hear and see me. thank god for sending a particular poet to. walk the earth with us. a light that shines brighter than my tuxedo. my today is to tell you. just of the many ways my life has been changed by the lady. you know as the pulitzer prize winner, the former poet laureate of the united states of america, the lady we refer to around my house as. our best example. the lady i referred to in my mind as my. tonight's medal for distinguished contribution to american letters recipient rita dove.

rita dove won the pulitzer prize. i was in elementary school and she was poet laureate of the united states. by the time i was high school. i'm going to pause because i know you're a writer, so you need time. do some math. i, i don't have to tell you what, seeing readers face on posters in the schools libraries where i was reared meant me and my sense of possibility for living my life as a poet. possibility is a particularly strong word for us. the people who populate this room each us showing up just to make sure. no, i'm not crazy. or at least. i'm not the only crazy. one possibility is what allows us nerve to write and to believe that something can be made of our scribbles. most of us are here in spite of, and sometimes because of, the fact that someone else thought the life we chose. the artist life was not a sustainable. and here we are proving the

naysayers wrong. here today, because i am the descendant, a people who, against all odds believed my existence possible. people who were allowed to write. and then people who so hard with their hands for so many hours that to think about would only lead to further exhaustion. and yet these people dreamed of me, before i was born. they thought someone like me could be a reading. writing black poet. they may not have been educated. they knew i would need an education. well, i ended with so much education that i'm a college professor with a ph.d. and i'd to teach you a poem. i love by rita dove. canary from michael this harper

billie holiday's burned had as many shadows as lights a mournful candelabra against a sleek piano the her signature under that ruined face. now you're cooking, drummond a bass magic spoon, magic needle take all day if you have to, with your mirror and your bracelet of song. fact is the invention of women under siege has been too in love in the service of myth. if you can't be free, be mystery. i love that paul paul. talk about lines that remind us the power of possibility. this poem is constellation of ancestry. before we can get to its major billie holiday, we have to

understand the dedication to the great jazz poet michael harper. i mean by the time you get through the first line, you are already steeped in blackness. it reminds me that my my family is an extended family that, like my hardworking forebears, was rita dove had been writing with someone like me in mind long before ever meeting me. she knows how to that because she knows michael harper dreamed her existence. she knows holiday dream that if only there were michael harper, maybe we could also end up with a rita dove of some day. the poem as so many rita dove poems do, lets me know that, is okay for me to expect that everyone ought to prepare for know the tradition from which i was born just as much as i am for and know the tradition from which past recipients of this honor like ray bradbury and arthur miller and john ashbery born. if poetry is we can use then this poem fights for us.

it lets us know that some of the feelings we once had of invisibility had a lot to do with who we thought needed to be looking at us. and it doubles down on that directive in one final line of a commandment. if you can't be free, be a mystery. it is my pleasure to present to you the novelist, the playwright, the the recipient of the national humanities medal from president bill clinton and national medal of arts, from president obama and the author of. several, several beloved volumes of poetry. i give you our best example. my sister rita dove.

and. oh, eric. wow. thank you, man. i'm going to try to step up onto that crystal stair. you just laid out. you know, and that's langston. for those of you who don't know,

you know, to the national book foundation and the board of directors, it's tireless staff. my deepest gratitude. i can't explain what an honor this is. but i do have a confession for you from the moment that ruth dickey me, i would be receiving this. i began to fret about my acceptance speech and not because of this audience. because you, the labor behind every triumph or failure you are in essence my peeps. now i fretted because i have always away from mulling over things like or intention or what my work might have on others, especially when i'm in the moment of writing the process of writing, which is when i am most grounded in myself in all the

selves i have been and that have come before me and all the self. self that i might still become. so how then? i compose 3 to 5 minutes worth of clear insightful sentences when a poet can easily spend 3 to 5 hours debating the effect of a comma versus a. i, that the translators in our midst may understand that what a poet manages to ink onto a page or put into a computer is memory, as it were. it's just a silhouette, a shadow of that essential enigma that we call life. the is called upon to use words like stepping stones to carry herself and.

her readers across that unarticulated turbulence, the unrewarded depths within us. granted, that's pretty frightening stuff, which may be why many people are wary of poetry afraid they won't understand it the right way. in today's endangered intellectual climate, my cynical self might say that it's why the woefully growing list of censured and banned books in america's schools libraries includes relative little poetry. unless that commercial success breaks the ears of those reactionary burners who rather than risk being asked to explain what it is that strikes them as dangerous in our stanzas have left us to our corner of the sky, hoping that no one can hear

us above their shouts, but we keep on strumming our harps. grateful for the village publishers, editors, printers distributors, marketers, booksellers and who help keep those strings tuned. so tonight i like to give proper thanks to a few of those villagers who have helped me along way to jerry costanzo at carnegie mellon university, who 40 plus years ago. i can't believe that believed in a fledgling poet enough to publish my first three books and me his blessing when w.w. norton came calling and then to the enormity book. carole hooks smith, my editor at norton for 20 years and.

until her death in 2009. and to my editor now, the marvelous jill beloff, who seems to know just when i need a hug or nudge, and of course, to my partner in crime and passion for nearly half a century my husband fred friedman. but finally i'd like to give a huge thank you to levar for hosting this evening's festivities, but also for the hours of babysitting, reading rainbow. reading, rainbow. when our daughter aviva growing up in the eighties. now they today you stepped into our living room to guide her on

her book driven. she still the volcano episode by way and it was a time when to glimpse portion of that luminous rainbow arch meant promise. i hope that this nation can find that open hearted joy again for the fear that has engendered so much hate that has closed minds and strife filled imagination. is what literature what all art seeks to dismantle. so i thank you all for being here and sustaining me. thank you.

rita dove. rita dove. i did not expect to come here and cry in front of people. but there you go. thank you so much, mr.. you know, she said something really about art, and i believe that artistic expression is in fact love, artistic expression is love in action. and so all of you in this room who have any connection to art and artistic endeavor and for me, the written word is at the highest rung of of art itself.

god bless, god bless. ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome the chairman of the board of the national book foundation, the very suave and david steinberg steinberg. thank thank you, levar. good evening. on of the board of directors of the national book. i want to welcome you to the 74th national book. as many of you know, it's not the board actually picks the finalists or the winners of the national book awards up to independent judges panel of judges every year.

but we do get to vote on the lifetime achievement awards, and it feels wonderful to have picked a great poet and, a great bookseller, and tonight, i'm filled with gratitude. not only for this year's lifetime honorees, but for all poets and all booksellers, and in fact, for librarians and publishers and editors and writers, and most especially for all readers. thank you all, of you, for making books central to your lives and for caring about mission at the national book foundation. now, those of you who know me or who've been here before know that i don't let an opportunity to go by when i can recite the mission without doing that right, lisa? lucas, where's lisa? over here, right. so we've got a great mission to

to celebrate the best literature in the united expand its audience and ensure books have a prominent in our culture. that is why we're here tonight. now now, i don't have to tell you that it is a very challenging time in the world right now. the world very divided. there's a lot of sad ness and anger and fear. and my heart goes out to everyone who's in pain. there's a lot of pain out. and my wish for everyone who's with us tonight, people in the room and people who are joining us from their homes, is that books and our love of books can help us all find understood finding compassion gratitude and

connection with one another that our common love of books helps bring us all together. all of us. that's my sincere. wish for tonight. and i feel good about that wish. the way things are going so far this evening now, my gratitude tonight also extends especially to our sponsors. i have to thank a few people. so thank you to penguin random house, barnes and noble bpg, central national national guardsmen foundation, simon and schuster, 20th century studios, amazon on apple audible booksellers book of the month, your google has shed harpercollins hearst ingram macmillan and scholastic. additional thanks to the susan est and kenneth wollack foundation, the stephen and joyce tatler charitable trust, deborah wiley and karen marcus,

dollar. and to all those who donate it. thank you. thank you all all. so. we now have a brief video. thank you again for being here. and thank for sharing our belief the power of books. i fell in love with reading when started the anne of green gables series at my school's library in fourth grade. my favorite teacher gave courage to terabithia to us. it was not like anything i had to read before this controversy. it had some words that seemed too naughty. we have a tradition.

around the age of 13, we were given songs of black folk by dubois, and we read it together as a family. my little gifted me with 100 years of solitude. it's the momentum. it's the magic. the idea that you might go into a book and then come out a completely different person. there are so many ways to engage with the written word. there's poetry, fiction, whether it's nonfiction. having an expansive definition of what it means to be a reader is the best way to have inclusivity in this world of literature that we all love. when i think about books loved, including many of the books that the book foundation has honored. i about how the reader emerges from those books better able to love herself and to love other people and, therefore better able to fight for justice, national book foundation does so many events all over and you see really the diversity of america and the different types of

readers that are here in one room. almost like coming into the fold of a community of writers. building readers means opportunities for people to have extraordinary experiences with books of writers. we partner with nonprofits and libraries. and universities. to bring writers around the country. we need champions for books. especially this moment. and we also need lots of different opportunities for to connect with books and find the books that resonate for them. for to be able to find the book that may change their lives when young people have access books their world is bigger. they're able to have a bigger imagination to more outside of their own communities to become better writers. they're able to be even more confident and who they are, especially when books reflect their stories, their identities, and celebrate that from them. to choose story that they want

to read, you can't even measure the impact. how that would bring them in their reading journey of their own. reading teaches us empathy. they can do anything. they can go anywhere. when you give somebody a book, they can something unlike anything might have otherwise experienced. that's of the reasons i love translated literature as you're giving somebody an exploration into different country, a different world, different beliefs and understanding. the national book awards is just sort of the boundaries of how we engage with texts and it really accessible to young people. the national awards are incredibly special in because it's an opportunity authors to get recognition for all the work that they do behind closed doors sometimes in the dead of night to try to tell a story. the national book award makes books visible to the public, uplifts on this international scale. some actors generosity. it keeps the art of reading and. writing alive.

we're in a moment culturally where, the idea of creativity is under attack. if we're not careful, we're going to end up with a culture of doesn't want to dream commercial book foundation is really necessary in terms of countering that, because if we're seeing a culture that can't have this starving itself, it's not food, it's not water. it's just as important as just as necessary for me, as the book foundation helps to guarantee that there will be books, there will be readers for those books. there will be writers for these books. that's why it's important to celebrate. please welcome to the stage. ruth dickey executive director of the national book foundation.

what? good evening, everyone. i'm so grateful to have a moment amidst tonight's luminous celebrations of books writers to also talk the work that we do year round readers. as you just in that great video through a slate of education and public programs the national book foundation has reached readers in nearly all 50 states. just this past year, we visited communities across the country from miami, florida to tucson, arizona and the mississippi delta to huntsville, texas in may, national book award honorees tess gundy and tomi joined us in montana for events at salish. kootenai, a community college on the flathead reservation, and with elk river arts, and lectures in livingston montana. yeah, it was amazing. attendees thanked us and some of

them mentioned they had driven 6 hours to be with us at the event. those words have stuck with me ever since. a reminder that in every corner of the country there is a hunger for reading. a hunger for meeting writers and for conversations. and a hunger for connecting. with books that capture the diverse beauty and complexity of the human experience. at the national book, we want books to be a vibrant and accessible part of every community. and to do that, we need your help. we're just $57,000 from reaching tonight's fundraising goal, and we hope that you will help us to read, set. for those of you in the room with us, there are, qr codes at your table and on your menus. you can get out your phone right now and write to do that in the room with us. or if you prefer to make a pledge or donate with a casorc'r station to collect donations at the end of the night for our

viewers at home. please follow the link in the chat or visit national booktv dot org access. give a donation of. any amount will help us bring authors to more communities to get more books into the of more young people and to help that books remain a part of our culture. so as you make your donations i hope you are all getting out your phones and making a donation right now. i'd love to think a few more really important people. thank you to the national book foundation of directors for your trim leadership, your guidance and your unwavering commitment to this work. thank you to our book council, our host committee and our after party committee for lending us your time your expertise and your cheer. thank you to our collaborator at really useful media who are producing tonight's broadcast for readers across the country. thank you to i and incredible design team and ships with additional design support from czar fong who always makes sure

we look our very best immense. thanks to tonight's host levar burton for being a lifelong hero, books and an ally in our work work. and thanks to very special guest oprah winfrey for being an incomparable champion of books and writers. last but, certainly not least, we need a whole room. tremendous. thank you. the volunteers, interns and but mighty staff of the national book foundation. right now. huge, huge thank you to meredith andrews, natalie green, erica, tori, emily lovett, julia lee, juliana lima, megan reynolds, al romero, jordan smith, maggie tansey and john dean engler and an extra special thank you to our amazing awards and honors

manager madeline for coordinating so many details large and small to make tonight possible. and speaking of tonight almost time to learn which will be the winners of this year's national book awards. you're of the national book foundation. share the energy and excitement that we are all feeling in this room right now with readers all the country. so thank you thank you. thank you, everyone, for with us tonight. thank you. believing for believing in our work. and thank you for being part of the best team there is. team book. thank you. enjoy night. okay. i would love to remind everyone how critical is for all of us to support the year round work of the national foundation to reach

readers everywhere. as said, we have just $57,000 left to meet our goal. so before you tonight or close your computer if you are at home, please join us in. supporting readers and books all year long. you know, one of the most exciting and special parts of, the national book awards, are that no one knows who winners are in advance. not the board of directors or staff or even me. i asked. they wouldn't tell me. earlier today, the five judges in all five categories made their final decisions and we all are sharing in the excitement to hear news made public live on this stage tonight. the winners will be announced by the chair of each category presented in reverse alphabetical order. first. young literature then translate

literature. poetry nonfiction and fiction. we have a few more surprises up our sleeve this evening. five, to be exact. each category. panel chair will be introduced by the voice of a fellow book lover. helping us to celebrate from. first we have award winning singer and author to introduce the final lists for the 2023 national book award for. young people's literature and panel chair dr. claudet as maclean introducing julie andrews. in the hands of a young person. books are nothing of transformative. this year's finalists for the 2023 national book award for young people's literature

include novels a graphic memoir and a picture book. readers follow young protagonists full of books, love and embarrassment for their families from rural vermont, disney world. these stories remind us words matter tremendous and those histories should reexamined in the united states and abroad. to help readers better understand the world and their places within it, the panel for this year's national award for young people's literature is claudette smith lynn, the executive of the center for the study of multicultural children literature. wrote wrote good evening.

been a member of 2003 national book for young people's literature panel has been a once in lifetime honor for. each of us. we, the fantastic five, completed personal, professional and geographic journeys via zoom meetings to to this evening in york city. we were a team a dream team coming in from different backgrounds and. our discussions were open thought provoking comprehensive and deep we were respectful and appreciative of each other's points of view. i have deeply grateful to my fellow judges sarah pa darling, kyle, lou coffey, justin a

reynolds saba to hear it was a privilege work together to select these fabulous finalists. the finalists for national book award for young people's literature are kenneth m kado gather gather. candlewick press hurrah for me. huda f cares. doll for young readers and penguins random house. vashti harrison big. little brown books for young readers hatching book group. katherine marsh. the last year a survival story of ukrainian family roaring for

press macmillan publishers and dan sant. a first time for everything first. second macmillan publishers. and this year, national book for young people's goes to dance fantastic. the first time for everything.

from. you. you know you tell yourself that you're not going to write a speech because don't think you have a chance and i think maybe my friend robin then way who won the national book award back in 2018. she took me out to a celebratory lunch being on the short list and she said, well, you have a

20% chance, so you should write something because there's a lot of smart people in that room room. thank you so much for this lovely award. i'd like to congratulate my four fellow finalists who i've had the lovely of sharing this amazing experience with, as well as with the amazing list of longlist authors who were also named. i'd like to thank everyone at the national book award and especially this year's judges for selecting such a diverse range of books from young adult to middle grade in picture books and graphic novels, which demonstrate that a wide variety stories can be worthy of such high praise praise. i'd like to thank my editor, connie shew, who has been my arbiter of literary taste for almost ten years. while many authors sometimes have readers and friends who read their work, connie has been my sole confidante who studies

my rough idea of a story like a large bottle of clay and helps me mold it into a refined of art that i can proudly share for all world to see. one caldecott medal and one national book award. not bad, connie connie. i'd like to thank my agent, jody. for her ability to skillfully help my career for almost 15 years. she's been a steadfast supporter of my ideas and ambitions of this once young, insecure artist and helped me navigate the course towards a wonderful career that i have today. more importantly, i value your friendship and the bond we have as friends. i'd like to thank my lovely wife, leah. who endures the sometimes chaotic months and years of a writer who can become so passionate in his ambitions that he would consume his own soul to

craft a work of art. it is not easy being soulmate of a man who is willing to die for his work. you're often asked to pull double duty as a parent for days and sometimes weeks, while on book tours and school visits. while you skillfully navigate your own ambitions as a scientist in the challenging field of biology, you allow me the freedom to chase my ambitions, dreams, but remind me that the world is not worth living if you don't occasionally pause for a moment to relax. i'd like to thank everyone. macmillan publishing most kurt benshoff for his meticulous eye as an art director. morgan, molly ellis, jen besser, john gag and many others far too many to name who helped get a first time for everything out into the world. last not least, i'd to thank my mother, who i think is watching right? who saw young, insecure child endure struggles of growing up through the tumultuous years of

adolescence and gently them out the door to show his young, innocent mind that despite the awkward and awful experiences can sometimes experience in life, that the world is immense, and that within that vast world is also great kindness and, love. thank you very much. congratulations, dan. and to dan's mom watching on the livestream. we are all big fans of your work. next up, we have actor, author of green lights and just because to introduce the for the 2023 national book award for

translated literature and the panel chair jeremy jang. please listen for the voice of matthew mcconaughey reading literature in translation reveals the connective power storytelling on an international. the finalists for the 2023 national book award for trans lady literature are fantasy and reality within their pages considering the brutalities of capitalism colonialism and homophobia. characters old and young chased the possibility of freedom and expand the of our imaginations. these works were translated into english from dutch, french, korean, portuguese and spanish. the panel chair for this year's national book award for translated is jeremy tiong, novelist, playwright and translator of over 20 books from

chinese. and. writes thank you to the voice of matthew mcconaughey. at a time. great turbulence and mistrust. translator literature is more vital than it has ever been with its ability to help us navigate an increasingly fractured world. since its inception and its current form five years ago, this category has recognized two books that delve some of the most pressing issues of the day, such as palestinian liberation and displaced people. to change, while also scintillating texts in their right, these books an essential

part of the global conversation brought to anglophone readers through the dedication and brilliance of trans leaders and publishers. this year's finalists are no exception. ranging from a tender coming of age and, coming out queer novel from to a reckoning colonial legacy in senegal. from an elliptical portrait of a troubled childhood at colombia. to a spiky, surreal collection of short stories from south and a fractured narrative of queer actualization, it was near impossible to choose these treasures and. i have to thank my fellow judges brock, arthur, malcolm dixon, cristina rodriguez and tracy. turning sharply. whiting for the months of reading and intense discussion and the grace and thoughtfulness with which they navigated this

most difficult of decisions. we are grateful to the national book foundation and particularly to ruth dickey and madeline shelton for guiding us through this process. the five finalists for the national book award for translated are for a young cousin, funny translator from the korean by anton her algonquin books hachette book group. duffy job beyond door of no return translated from the french by sam taylor, fsg macmillan publishers stenio gardel. all the words that remain transl later from the portuguese by bruna dantas lobato new vessel press b larkin, tana abyss translated from the spanish by lisa dillman wild editions a street on a woman's madness.

translated from the dutch lucy scott. two lines press. this year's book award for translator peter literature goes to stenio gardel bruna dantas lobato for the words that remain new press.

what happening right now. thanks to the national book foundation and the judges.

okay i dedicate this award to my mom. eat any. she's not us anymore. but she always believed me. and i wouldn't be here if or not for her. she was the best mom. and i miss so much. i'd like to thank my brother dale, all my family and friends so conversationally. vanessa ferrari, julia versus also fernanda in algae. stephanie hawk and everyone at. it was my brazilian publishing house and also lucia heath. julia berman and everyone at heath agency. finally, julie, special thanks

to bruna to bruna for capturing the heart and the of the book and writing down in your own beautiful. and to my co-vice publisher of neo verso press for all your dedication and hard work and for giving my novel such a wonderful home. growing up as a gay boy in, the hinterlands of northeast brazil, it was impossible for me think to dream of such an honor. but being here tonight as a gay man receiving this award for a novel about another gay journey to south. i wanted to say to everyone who whoever felt wrong about themselves that your heart and your desire are true.

and you are just as deserving as anybody else of a fulfilling life and accomplishing possible dreams. thank you. a great night. oh, my god. hi. thank you all so much to my fellow finalists for their brilliant. to the judges. for reading hundreds books to stand you for trusting me with his writing. and to editors and new vessel press. michael wise and jennifer. for putting putting my name on

the cover of that book were i it belongs. thank you. hashtag name the translator. we not mysterious fairies working the dark. it's so rare that i get to see the brazil i know in books. it's even rarer for a book like to receive this kind of honor. and i'm so grateful. thank always for reading translations. for recognizing the work of translator. for recognizing our art. our corner of latin america. here's to reading the world with curiosity and empathy. thank you very much.

congratulation daniel and bruna. next have the author of salt fat acid heat. he's a chef and a co-host of home cooking. to introduce the finalist for the 2023 national book award for and the panel chair heidi erdrich. please listen to the voice of sammy nosrat. poetry reveals, the limitless possibilities and power of language. the finalists for the 2023 national book award for poetry explore communication and touch the ancestral healing medicine of and the building of community and collective. these works traverse language and borders connect and define. family and confront the

pervasiveness of american racism. to show not just where are from, but where we are going. the panel chair for year's national book award for poetry is heidi erdrich, the author of seven poetry collections, including big bully, a national poetry winner. i'm gratified to thank my colleagues on the poetry panel for their hard work and the camaraderie and pleasure of their company in a quite difficult task. we think the national book for this honor, the 2023 poetry

panel members, are rick perl, jonathan farmer reyna. leon somers. the pono poetry panel acknowledges the extraordinary of celebrating poetry in a face tremendously difficult moment in our history. while we have the joy of honoring powerful poems of beauty language, love, family history, trauma, genocide, colonial dispossession and survival all survive events while we reward our accomplishments in our art form tonight, humans suffering in gaza is at the forefront of our thoughts its celebration. celebration and grief seem opposed. but in my life and in my recent

interactions with those in the u.s. personally suffering war poetry is what we reach for in our grief. as mom darwish wrote a poem in a difficult time is a beautiful flowers in cemetery. these past six months of panic conversation, hundreds of poetry collections has been deep work. we are all enlarged by what we've read. we found voices and that continued to sound in minds. several of these made it into our long list and then short list, but hundreds more did not. we, every poet whose books up for consideration and we thank you for your words words. the finalists for the national book award for poetry are john

lee clarke how to communicate. w.w. norton company company. craig's santos perez from anacortes operated territory a my omni don publishing brandon som tribute us george review university of georgia press press even shocklee suddenly we wesleyan university press. and monica you and from from gray wolf press press this national book award for poetry goes to from unincorporated territory. ari ament craig santos, perez.

offer day greetings sonoma rc to the national book foundation sonoma. rc thank you to and all the judges in sonoma city to, all the poetry finalists, all of whom i consider friends and whose work admire. i to thank my partner olivia for having written for about a year and she's been so supportive of means getting me to write again so thank you. i want to thank my family my brother and sister my dad and especially my mom who's traveled here tonight, my. i'm a very small island of guam and there's only one bookstore. and when i was a kid, my mom would take me there every week to always buy me a book. and she she's still the love of

reading and writing from a very young age so thank you mom i love so much. as i mentioned, i come from guam, which is a u.s. territory, one of the last remaining colonies in world. and when i was growing up in in kind of a colonial school system, we were never taught my own people's literature. we always taught american literature and. so when i started writing, my mission was to hopefully inspire the next generation of pacific islander authors. and so i wanted to add my remarks. to read poem. the last point from this book. and but before i do that, also want to thank my publishers, omni dong to laura for helping me typeset and design this book to receive. i'm not sure if you folks are watching back home, but russell has been my publisher and teacher for the last 20 years. i'm so grateful to you, rusty.

i love you so much and thank you also to ken keegan, another of omni don, who is no with us. so with those themes, i want to share this poem. it's called the pacific written tradition. i home to guam for the first time after 15 years away and an english class at one of guam's public high schools. as i read aloud from my new book, i noticed a student crying. what's wrong? i asked she says, i've never seen our culture in a book before. i just thought we weren't worthy of literature. how many young have dived into the depths? a book only to find coral and emptiness? we were taught. the missionaries were the first readers in the pacific because they could decipher the strange signs of the bible we were taught the missionaries were the

first authors because they possess the authority of written words today studies show that islander students read write below grade level. it's natural experts claim. your ancestors were illiterate oral people don't believe their claims or ancestors decipher signs in nature interpreted formations and sun positions and wind patterns. we've and ocean efflorescence that's why master navigator papa mao once said quote if you can read the ocean, you will never be lost. and quote, now, let me tell you about pacific written traditions, how our ancestors test, how our ancestors tattooed, their skin with defiant scripts, intricately inked genealogies, how they carved epics into hardwood with sharpened their hands and the pressure and responsibility of memory how they stenciled

petrol. fake lyrics on cave with clay fire and smoke. so the next time someone tells you people were illiterate, teach them about our visual literacy, our ability to read the intertextual of all things and always remember if we can write the ocean, we will never be silent. thank you. your regulations, craig craig. next up, we have comedian, writer and former host of the daily to introduce the finalist for the 2023 national book award for nonfiction and panel chair ada ferrer. here is the voice of mr. trevor

no. to understand the presence, we must better understand our past. the finalists for the 2023 national book award for nonfiction recontextualize u.s. history through an indigenous confront the trauma, gendered violence and together 248 notes on black life memoir research live side by as the climate science and oral histories. together, these works of nonfiction weave together a multiplicity of voices to illustrate both our history and a path forward. the panel chair for this year's national book for nonfiction is author of and american history, winner of the 2022 pulitzer prize in history.

thank you, everyone. good evening and thank you to ruth and madeline and everyone at the national book award foundation for all the work you do and for on tonight's event. so a few weeks ago i was in northern florida doing a book event at a retirement community with a lot of well-read people in the audience. and one of them i expecting questions about the book, but one of them asked me what the most interesting, rewarding you have done this year. and without hesitating replied well, serving as on the jury for the national award in nonfiction, it has been an honor inspiring experience. but it didn't matter that it was so work that getting. from 638 very unique equally

distinctive books to one winner tonight seemed impossible at many points it didn't even matter that some of us on the jury were dreaming about books night after night it was all inspiring for two reasons. one was the judges i got to serve with, and the other one is. the other reason is books themselves. so i have the privilege and the pleasure to work closely with four brilliant, thoughtful and, generous colleagues. hanif abood. sorry about iraqi five who could not be here tonight, but is here with us in spirit. james fugate sarah shulman and sonia shah start this. starting in may we read and, read, we zoomed and always returning to the criteria that we established at the outset of what we were looking for these

books and we decided we wanted works that matter in any of the multiple ways that books can. we were looking for that is beautiful again in any of the many ways that writing can be beautiful. books that were interesting in form or original in their approach a topic and ultimately that work that surprises when you read it. we read so many books, impressed us and moved us. fascinating books that we are so are out in the world. i speak on behalf of the panel when i congratulate who had a book nominated this year. but as you all know we had to get from 638 to 10 then to five and tonight to one. the finalist for the 2023 national book award for nonfiction are ned blackhawk. the rediscovery of america

native peoples and the unmaking of u.s. history by yale university press. christina rivera. gosh said, liliana as invincible. a sister search for by hogarth penguin random house. christina sharpe ordinary notes notes farrar, straus and giroux macmillan publishers. raja qaddafi. we could have been my father and i. a palestinian memoir by other press and john valiant fire weather a true from a hotter world, not penguin random house. and this year's national book

for nonfiction goes to ned blackhawk the rediscovery of american.

who have made taking a minute or two to collect myself. what an extraordinary evening and. two days the past experience has been. i really am extraordinarily humbled by this recognition, and i'm also deeply appreciative of

the spirit of. the kind of collaborative support and the really intense kind of solidarity. all of the finalists have displayed the past two days. it's a real honor to be part of this national book award family. and i'll cherish this experience for a very, very long time. so thank you so very much for this incredible recognition. i'm thrilled beyond words to accept the national book award. this book which i have a copy someplace was a very long time the making and i really can't even begin identify its precise origins. it's conceivable started at time

when i may not have even known that i would someday become a historian when i to when to public libraries and encountered the beauty of the vast world of books. or perhaps it was from my dear mother, who is watching, who was also an english teacher. and. i'm indebted to so many who helped in this process. and in the book's conceptualization formulation and its production, most notably my brilliant partner maggie blacklock. maggie, your sustained nurture and support have been so

transformative. your matchless command over federal indian law and inquiry have also been helpful in making the second half of this book, in particular possible. we've survived several moves a global pandemic and a three year or three year old tornado named evan aaron blackhawk. among many challenges, words convey how grateful i remain for all that you do do. the team at yale university press has been wonderful from the moment we envisioned a series on american indians and modernity to development of this most recent volume. christopher rogers, the dean berg, brenda king and john donne each have been supportive and offered the highest of professionalism at every stage. thank you. many close friends and

colleagues have also helped what is the saying they know who they are. um my dear friends aaron marianne byrd bear. from madison, wisconsin merit particular recognition they have been with us and we have been with them. a small team of former students in essential ways securing permissions for images helping with the maps that i'm very proud of in this book the in of the front and the in front maps and maps both kind of convey the sense and of the book as a whole they show the pre contact or removal locations of the native nations of the united states at the time of european arrival. the map shows contemporary state and federal recognized tribes of native nations across the contiguous united states.

you can find them all in two maps. so a small team of former students helped in that process, offering much needed along the way. in the space of. profound gratitude. i'd like to close, with a bit of an invitation that may not be super evident from the book's formal or its acknowledgments the subject american indian history while often simultaneous the unfamiliar and discomforting is also a shared experience that touches us all. the currents of the past run deep and inform topography of the present. a theme that we've seen throughout the work of so many finalists this year. native america is also a form of

our national inheritance. we can, nor should not continue its systematic erasure. moreover, it is rich and vibrant field that provides uncommon and uncommonly beautiful. by example, it is difficult to convey beleaguered, impoverished and generally marginalized. native nations have often in contemporary. a quote ignorant and dependent race. as the supreme court maintained related, it is similarly difficult to convey how astute, capable and at times successful native and their citizens have been in achieving secured of their lands, resources and, sovereign authority. this is a field and subject in

short that can be both inviting and rewarding despite the potential unfamiliar ity and discomfort that may accompany one through their steps to know and walk this land, to feel and understand its past, and to do so as best that we can. guided by the voices of peoples past and present, these must become essential attributes of american historical inquiry guiding. guiding philosophies, open to all. thank you so very much. again.

oh, congratulations. well, here we are. finally, we have the singer and the founder of service 95 to introduce the finalist for, the 2023 national book award for fiction. the panel chair mat johnson is the voice of dua lipa fiction, rigorous curiosity for character, for place, for new and different perspectives. the finalists for the 2023 national book award for fiction illuminate the interior lives of their characters from prisoners fighting to the on reality television to black muslims defining and redefining their faith in contemporary america to multiple generations of. a mixed race fishing community, whether from the shores of

remote islands or the tundra. scandinavia these stories interrogate love and hate dedication and defiance and the reclamation reinvention of our shared histories. the panel chair for this year's national book award for fiction is mat johnson the philip h knight chair of humanities at the university of oregon and author of invisible things. i am always too tall for -- things. okay really out of a confession to make, i've been published for 23 years now and that time i've made many lifelong friends in the literary community. some of them are here and. i've seen colleagues grow on the page and flourish until the

whole world knows how dope they are. just like we always did. i've mentored many promising students who've, gone on to become prominent for much of my life, the literary world has been my natural ecosystem, and yet i read most of their books i and people i hold dearly. you know, i've read some of them, but not nearly all. and i read a lot, but it's a lot of books and thus it is impossible to be both an active writer and also get to read the books. you would love to be able to. there's just not enough in a given year even in those periods where i am able to read far more than i usually do, i can only managed to peruse a cross-section of all that's available in american prose fiction for any given year. one of the greatest benefits of participating in the judging of the national book award is that it literally forces to read way

beyond your normal scope. every book you've been here buzz about all year and other no one is talking about and yet they should be together. they form a sort state of the union of american fiction. i am very happy to report that the state of literature is strong. now here's another confession. i don't like award shows. i have an excellent reason for this. like many writers, it's called player hating. i'm not going to lie. oftentimes events are for art forms. then over to a tremendous amount of attention, glamorous faces we see on all year, just peering in one room for the night. but and i say this with absolute bias literature is different. so aside from a minor handful of

exceptions, new books do not benefit from multimillion dollar encampments. rather, publishing relies on of mouth on literary reputation, on free -- paradox only while technical advances made getting publisher and publishing distributed easier. the new sea of literary voices has simultaneously made it incredibly difficult for individual books to fulfill their most basic purpose to be read, which is why events like this are so important. each book honored as finalist tonight represents the very best of american literature as chosen by these specific judges at this specific moment. and i make a point of offering that qualification because, it's important to note that literature is not track and field literature is not a race. there is no conclusive way to

literary greatness. readers and writers have individual influences, desire and taste, and those tastes shift over time. books heralded today are ignored tomorrow and vice versa. the wonderful and i mean truly wonderful books selected as our finalists tonight are great. but they not isolated incidents. they are represented of a thriving art form that has never been more diverse in every sense of that word. on behalf of the brilliant judges. i got to hang out with for the last couple of months. hello, helen. maria. vermont's steph cha. calvin crosby. silas and myself. thank you. national book foundation. thank you for standing up for books and free speech for the

last couple of months because you are challenged and you met the challenge. and thank you for the read was as much an honor to practice in judging this award as it is to bestow it. the finalists for the 2023 national book award for fiction nana kwame aj young train gang all-stars. pantheon books, penguin random house, aliya, bilal temple folk. simon schuster. paul harding. this other eden w.w. and company. hi uphill damien the end of drum time henry holt and company macmillan publishers. justin torres black outs farrar, straus and giroux macmillan.

an and this year's national book for fiction goes to blackouts by justin torres justin torres. wow. and wow wow i'm really yeah i'm talk i'm to keep this really short because the writers we've

collectively decided to make a statement and so i think the best thing we've been setting for a long time and i think the best thing is for the writers who want to participate in the statement and kind of make way up and then i will make my personal remarks why while people are are coming up so so yeah so coming. so first i need to my man david russell for putting up with my excessive about this book and about my own abilities. he's a literary critic he's a scholar a champion of literature. he's the smartest person i've spoken with it paid dividends to view it and i know i love you i love you. i want to thank my friends, especially my boys.

scott and angela flournoy, who is here tonight with me and for putting with my excessive lamentations this book i want thank my mother watching from a distance my i love you i want to thank my career family especially jamie and cohen and ariana martinez and valencia my beloved i want to thank my agent and all i want everyone to fsg especially janet johnson who has the yeah we've been working together for 15 years she edited my first book she's promised edit my next book i you've taught me so much about grace integrity both on and off the page and i feel lucky to growing and working with you and now i transition and we're going we're going to offer a statement.

on behalf of the finalists. we oppose the ongoing bombardment of gaza and call for inhumane cease fire to address the urgent humanity needs. the palestinians civilians, particularly children. we oppose antisemitism and anti-palestinian sentiment and islamist equally accepting the human of all parties knowing that further bloodshed does nothing to secure lasting peace in the region. thank you.

ladies and gentlemen. this concludes 74th national book awards ceremony. i want to say before we disperse, i so grateful to have lived long enough to see this snapshot of literature in america today. we congratulate all of the finalists the winners the judges. thank you all, ladies and gentlemen, for coming for those of you at home. thank you for being us. and please, all of you keep reading. i know i've got my cut out for me after tonight. god bless. look after yourselves going home. i'll see you next